Les Crustacés

Quais aux Briques 8
Bruxelles

This street in Brussels bristles with seafood restaurants. A long walk failed to find anything worthy, but Les Crustacés beckoned with its friendly family run atmosphere and proprietress.

We started with an amuse of very tasty prawns and escargots. The latter we ate with a pin so we could prise out the meat from inside.

Brussels is known for its mussels so we had to have some: steamed in white wine and fine herbs. Of course this comes with chips: homemade, perfectly crisp on the outside and creamily soft on the inside - served with home-made mayonnaise, bien sûr.

For our mains we ordered Lobster (Homard). I was tempted by the Thermidor, but wary of the excessively rich sauce that could disguise the taste of the sweet meat. We elected for a medium lobster split in two and cooked two ways: with garlic butter and flambéed in brandy.

Looking back, the brandy flambéed version was quite inferior. The bitterness of the flamed brandy really came through and kinda ruined the sweetness of the meat. The seafoody freshness was also totally destroyed.

We enjoyed our meals and waddled out replete, ready to visit Frederic Blondeel.